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ShareNEW DELHI: Universities and colleges, an issue untouched for long, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has said fees maybe linked to the quality of education provided.
Developed countries have been able to link fees to the productivity and quality delivery of higher education. Universities need to be accountable for such an increase in tuition fees by linking it to improvement in quality, the Commission said in a paper on higher education, adding in such situations, there is likely to be less resistance to change.
The presentation made before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently said a committee may be set up to look into the fee structure of universities, and issues like differential fee structure based on the "ability-to-pay" principle and cross subsidisation should be examined.
Revision in tuition fees is long pending in several state universities and colleges, the presentation said.
The poor should be exempted fees but those who have the ability to pay should share the burden of financing, it said. New initiative would have to be taken based on the close study of the current fee structure in universities and colleges.
Observing that there were varying levels of fees, the paper said some universities have reached a critical level beyond which increase in tuition fees may be counterproductive and some universities still have potentials to make changes in the fee structure.
The rural-urban divide should be kept in mind while deciding the hike in fees, the paper said. Even in urban colleges, students from lower socio-economic status should be given concessions.
However, the issue of modification in fees should not belinked to public financing. Tuition fees should be a supplementary source of finance to close the investment gap in higher education to higher education, it pointed out.
Noting that a high gap in tuition fees in public and private institutions would create an imbalance, the paper said there should be a body to regulate fees in private and public institutions.
In order to enhance affordability, it said a Higher Education Finance Corporation should be established with a seed capital of Rs 1,000 crore from the government and financial contributions from scheduled commercial banks of the order of Rs 4,000 crore.
The Corporation should evolve a strategy for student loans based on international experiences. The loan amount, provision of grant, rate of interest, repayment period, strategy of repayment, forgiveness conditions and income contingent conditions need to be worked out in such a manner that needy students benefited the most, it said.
